JOHN MUIR, EXPLORER
In researching about John Muir's life, I found that he has a big influence in our area. There is a hospital named after him, as well as streets, parks, schools and a museum. I visited the museum, which is in Martinez, California. It was his home where he lived with his wife and two daughters. There are many fruit trees around the home. There is one room where he wrote about his travels and explorations. He wrote many letters to save the environment in many places.
In researching about John Muir's life, I found that he has a big influence in our area. There is a hospital named after him, as well as streets, parks, schools and a museum. I visited the museum, which is in Martinez, California. It was his home where he lived with his wife and two daughters. There are many fruit trees around the home. There is one room where he wrote about his travels and explorations. He wrote many letters to save the environment in many places.
I also visited John Muir Woods. There are many large redwood trees there on a path. The stream that runs along the path is very clear and beautiful.
John Muir in Yosemite
1863, Artist: J.Bierstadt
Location:Landers Peak, Colorado
Although, John Muir had many other accomplishments I would like to just focus on his early childhood and how that formed his explorations in the United States.
A brief biography:
John Muir was born in Scotland on April 1, 1838. He was the third child, born after two sisters, Margaret and Sarah and before David, Daniel,Jr., the twins Mary and Annie, and Joanna.
His mother, Ann, was possibly very passive, as there is not much written about her in Muir's autobiography. She liked painting and poetry, was kind and affectionate, conventionally pious, but only vaguely there. She lived to be eighty-three, dying in 1896 in the United States.
In Muir's autobiography, in contrast, much is written about his father. Daniel Muir married Ann in 1833. He operated a thriving feed and grain business, and was one of the leading citizens of the town. The building was one of the largest, having a large domestic space upstairs for the family to live. This is where Muir lived as a child in Scotland.
Even though they were well off financially, they lived very frugally. Breakfast was always porridge, milk and treachle eaten from wooden bowls. Lunch was usually vegetable broth and barley scones. Evening "tea" was white bread and a little milk mixed with water and sugar. Dinner was boiled potatoes and scones again. Muir didn't mention eating meat, although they could easily afford it. This was part of his father's strict control over his children and wife.
He placed restrictions on what they ate, where they went, and what they did with their time. If they disobeyed any of his rules, the children must be punished by harsh reproof or whipping. Muir wrote: "Naturally, his heart was far from hard, though he devoutly believed in eternal punishment for bad boys both here and hereafter." He denied his childen the normal pleasures of childhood.
Playing outside was forbidden as Muir wrote: "Father sternly forbade David and me from playing truant in the fields with plundering wanderers like ourselves, fearing we might go on from bad to worse, get hurt in climbing over walls, caught by gamekeepers, or lost by falling over a cliff into the sea." Wild nature was a source of danger. Daniel was afraid of cliffs, birds, plants, the ocean - any aspect of nature that was not under his personal command. However, he was a grower of fruits and vegetables, and allowed the children to garden in their own space.
Muir felt unjustly treated and became as determined to challenge Daniel's restrictions. "After I was five or six years old, Muir recalled, "I ran away to the seashore or the fields almost every Saturday, and every day in the school vacations except Sundays...in spite of the sure sore punishments that followed like shadows, the natural inherited wildness in our blood ran true on its glorious course as invincible and unstoppable as stars."
1. "The story of my boyhood and youth", by John Muir, Boston & N.Y. Houghton Mifflin Company, published 1913.His mother, Ann, was possibly very passive, as there is not much written about her in Muir's autobiography. She liked painting and poetry, was kind and affectionate, conventionally pious, but only vaguely there. She lived to be eighty-three, dying in 1896 in the United States.
In Muir's autobiography, in contrast, much is written about his father. Daniel Muir married Ann in 1833. He operated a thriving feed and grain business, and was one of the leading citizens of the town. The building was one of the largest, having a large domestic space upstairs for the family to live. This is where Muir lived as a child in Scotland.
Even though they were well off financially, they lived very frugally. Breakfast was always porridge, milk and treachle eaten from wooden bowls. Lunch was usually vegetable broth and barley scones. Evening "tea" was white bread and a little milk mixed with water and sugar. Dinner was boiled potatoes and scones again. Muir didn't mention eating meat, although they could easily afford it. This was part of his father's strict control over his children and wife.
He placed restrictions on what they ate, where they went, and what they did with their time. If they disobeyed any of his rules, the children must be punished by harsh reproof or whipping. Muir wrote: "Naturally, his heart was far from hard, though he devoutly believed in eternal punishment for bad boys both here and hereafter." He denied his childen the normal pleasures of childhood.
Playing outside was forbidden as Muir wrote: "Father sternly forbade David and me from playing truant in the fields with plundering wanderers like ourselves, fearing we might go on from bad to worse, get hurt in climbing over walls, caught by gamekeepers, or lost by falling over a cliff into the sea." Wild nature was a source of danger. Daniel was afraid of cliffs, birds, plants, the ocean - any aspect of nature that was not under his personal command. However, he was a grower of fruits and vegetables, and allowed the children to garden in their own space.
Muir felt unjustly treated and became as determined to challenge Daniel's restrictions. "After I was five or six years old, Muir recalled, "I ran away to the seashore or the fields almost every Saturday, and every day in the school vacations except Sundays...in spite of the sure sore punishments that followed like shadows, the natural inherited wildness in our blood ran true on its glorious course as invincible and unstoppable as stars."
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